Bhubaneswar: Three senior BJP MLAs have been suspended from the ongoing Budget session for hurling shoes and headphones at Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro’s podium during the House proceedings Saturday.
The suspended legislators are Opposition chief whip Mohan Charan Majhi, deputy Leader of Opposition Bishnu Charan Sethi and senior BJP member Jayanarayan Mishra.
The Speaker suspended the three leaders after examining the video footage. The House Saturday witnessed ugly scenes as BJP MLAs hurled shoes, earphones and papers at the Speaker’s podium during the proceedings.
One of them also threw dustbin inside the House. As the Speaker rejected an adjournment motion brought by Congress members on the mining issue, both BJP and Congress members alleged that the Speaker doesn’t want to conduct any debate on the mining issue in the House.
If the Speaker has any objection on the notice why did he not clarify it earlier, the Opposition leaders questioned.
Soon, BJP and Congress members rushed to the well of the House and created ruckus. Unable to run the House, the Speaker called an all-party meeting and later allowed debate on passing of the Odisha Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill and the Societies Registration (Odisha Amendment) Bill.
Meanwhile, BJP members again went to the well and hurled two shoes, papers and three headphones towards the Speaker’s podium.
Hence, both the Bills were passed in the House without the participation of Opposition members. Following this, the House was adjourned till 4 pm.
As soon as the post-lunch session started, many Treasury bench members and Parliamentary Affairs Minister BK Arukha condemned the action of the Opposition and demanded exemplary action against the BJP members for insulting the chair and the House.
“During my 26 years as a member of the House, I have never witnessed such an unfortunate incident. Strong punishment should be given for such act,” Arukha said.
Senior BJD legislator PK Deb demanded suspension of the BJP members while another member from BJD, Kishore Mohanty said, “It is the prerogative of the Speaker to take decision on which adjournment motion will be accepted or not. No one can challenge him.”
Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Narasingha Mishra said, “What has happened in the House is really unprecedented, undesirable and un-called for. I express my displeasure over the incident.”
However, another senior Congress member Santosh Singh Saluja termed it as a trivial incident and said he is feels sorry for the untoward incident. “But you should not give much importance to the incident,” he told the Speaker.
After hearing the members, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings and conveyed an all-party meeting to watch the video footage of the incident.
After the meeting, government chief whip Pramila Mallick moved a motion to suspend the three MLAs, which was adopted.
Later, the Speaker announced that the three MLAs have been suspended till the end of the ongoing Budget session. He also requested them to leave the House immediately.
However, within next two hours, the House was adjourned sine die, five working days ahead of schedule. Till the time of writing this report, BJP members are on an “overnight” dharna near the Mahatma Gandhi’s statue on the Assembly premises to protest the suspension order of the Speaker.
Congress members too staged walk-out protesting against the non-acceptance of their adjournment motion.
“I am not supporting the shoe hurling incident. We could beg apology for any such incident even as I am unaware that who were involved in the incident. But, the Speaker has curtailed all the constitutional guidelines today. As a Leader of Opposition, I was not allowed to speak. The Bills were passed arbitrarily amid heavy ruckus,” Leader of Opposition Pradipta Naik told reporters outside the House.
Reacting to the suspension, Mohan Majhi said “I have not hurled shoes. Throwing headphone towards Speaker’s podium is not a new incident in the House.”
However, Mishra welcomed his suspension saying, “We are opposing injustice in the Assembly. If I am suspended for opposing injustice, I would welcome it. The Speaker did not allow any Opposition member, including Leader of Opposition, to speak during passage of the Bills, which is unconstitutional.”
PNN